A/N: Hello again! Having a blast writing for TG! I'm sad to say that I hadn't been around for the rest of Hide Week as someone close to me passed away recently. So, in her honor, I've written this. I hope she has sweet dreams for all of eternity 3

Kudos and drop me a comment if you like it! I'd appreciate it ^^ Have a great one. Much love to everyone here 3

A Dose of Triple B

Around 10 o'clock on a chilly, spring night, Hideyoshi Nagachika – aka Hide – entered a convenience store a few streets down from Kamii University to grab some coffee. The slightly-better-than-watered-down-campus-coffee-even-though-it's-instant kind that he'd seen both Nishio and Kaneki drink: Blondy's.

He hoped that would have met Kaneki there, as fruitless (and sadly desperate) the idea that was. That Kaneki would have chosen this store, out of the hundreds that sold Blondy's, to stroll into.

Touka felt that way, he thought, for her to have gone to Kamii's campus just to stare at a missing poster of Kaneki. The same poster he neatly rolled up and kept; the same one currently jutting from the front left pocket of his large, teal coat.

Perhaps, if he did see Kaneki, he would open it and ask for the infamous Eyepatch's autograph.

He'd snickered when he heard the alias the Commission of Counter Ghoul, aka the CCG, assigned to Kaneki. Meant to incite wariness among the seasoned investigators, and perhaps excitement tinged by fear in those less experienced, but whenever Hide heard someone refer to Kaneki as Eyepatch, all he could remember was the day he'd first seen Kaneki back on campus after being released from the hospital.

Kaneki had dressed in a tan trench coat and had covered his left eye with a medical eye patch, as though he had been trying his best to look the part of a fancy pirate. He'd be the only one in the world who'd politely say, "Greetings, Mate E. I endeavor to acquire the booty."

Would Touka like this? He scoffed. Probably not. Her cappuccinos must taste way better.

"You look sad. What's wrong?" A girl with incredibly square bangs popped up at Hide's side and startled him.

Hide wondered – for her to ask such a question – if he had that same helpless look that Touka did.

"I-I'm fine."

"Nope! I have a friend who looks exactly like that when she's sad. It's always good to look out for others, even if you don't know them. So, I don't mind listening. Maybe I can help! Oh! I'm Yoriko Kosaka, by the way. What's your name?"

Hide chuckled, a bit overwhelmed by her vibrant introduction. "I'm Hideyoshi Nagachika, but you can just call me Hide. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Hide." Yoriko picked up a pack of Blondy's. "Are these good? I've been looking for something to help me stay awake to study." She beamed at Hide. "I want to go to the same university as my friend."

"No idea. I was going to try some myself."

"Let's both give it a try!" Yoriko picked up another pack and pushed it into Hide's hands. "Oh, what's that?" She pointed to the poster sticking out of his pocket.

"It's something of my friend's."

"How sweet! Did they make that for you? Is it a drawing? A picture? A map to the location of pirate treasure?" Yoriko glanced at his face and her pretty smile fell. "Did… Did something happen to your friend?"

Hide set the pack back on the shelf and plucked the poster from its place and began unrolling it. "Yeah." A Bristol board smile, that somehow felt more genuine that most of the smiles he'd ever seen from Kaneki, greeted him. "I just wish I knew how to help him."

"I'm so sorry." Yoriko's eyes were trained to the giant "MISSING" written above his picture, but gasped when she really examined the picture of Kaneki beneath. "That's Touka's boyfriend!" Her cheeks grew pink as her coat, and tears gathered in her eyes. "Why didn't she say something? Poor Touka, she's always bearing these things all alone."

Before Hide could offer any words of comfort, she hugged him. "Poor you! You're suffering all alone, aren't you?" She sounded slightly muffled, but Hide couldn't tell if it came from burying her face in his coat, or if she was trying to hold back her sobs. "But don't worry! You'll find your friend, and he's gonna be safe! And everything will be okay!" Careful not to damage the poster, Hide gave her a one-armed hug; he felt like he was hugging cotton candy's personification. "I'm sure he wants to see you and Touka again as well."

Abruptly, she pulled back and looked up at Hide. When she smiled brightly, Hide felt his cheeks heat up. "Come on! There's something else you definitely need!" She clutched his sleeve and hauled him over the small produce section.

When she released him, he quickly rolled back up the poster and placed it in his pocket. A bunch of bananas nearly poked his nose when he focused on Yoriko again. "Bananas?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"A banana before bed keeps the nightmares out of your head! My dad calls this: 'A dose of triple B'. It really works! I tried it before, and I dreamt that I became a world-renowned chef and Touka came over every night to have dinner with me! I'm sure you'll have sweet dreams if you eat one."

Hide took her advice, and her number ("If you ever need someone to talk to!"), but he had to refuse to let her buy the Blondy's and bananas for him first.

He set the poster on his desk, and went to bed at 12:06 A.M.

"Hide, are you listening to me?"

My head shot up the instant Kaneki's voice rang clear in my ears.

"Hide." Kaneki sat across from me, a look of mild irritation on his face. Black hair neatly fashioned into that old man's haircut of his and no medical eye patch concealing his eye.

"Where have you been? It took you long enough to come back." I felt rather than heard myself say.

Kaneki spoke again, but this time, it sounded less distinct, as though I were trying to fit words to his voice. "I should be asking you that. Touka and Yoriko will be here soon. You can't just fall asleep like that."

Here being the little café filled with the sweet aroma of freshly made cappuccinos called Anteiku.

"Guess I'm just tired."

I didn't know how I ended up at Anteiku.

Then Touka and Yoriko were there. Touka wore my coat, for some reason. Yoriko looked exactly as I last saw her, save for the enormous chef's hat on her head.

"Anyone want Taiyaki?" she asked, removing her hat, and pulling out a ceramic platter containing four Taiyaki from it. She sounded like Kaneki: fuzzy yet recognizable. "I just made them before we got here!" Two little rabbits, one pink and the other yellow, were painted on the bottom of the platter.

"Ah, Touka! You're on a diet! You should have coffee instead," I quickly covered.

Instead of playing along, she thumped me on the head and bit into the Taiyaki. "You saying I'm fat?" she asked through the mouthful. Like Yoriko and Kaneki, her words came out sounding indistinct, but it was clearly Touka's voice. She didn't even let me deny it before she continued, "Just shut up and eat."

So, I listened and took one and went to take a bite out of it, only to have it snatched right out of my hand. I looked up to find the culprit nonchalantly breaking it in half. "Nishio?"

"You snooze, you lose, Nagachika." His serpentine eyes glittered victoriously behind his thin, square-framed glasses, and he handed half to his pretty girlfriend, Kimi.

"Give it back!" Two halves (both head and tail end) appeared in my hands, and I realized that Kaneki and Touka had shared theirs with me.

I thought I ate them, but I tasted no sweet bean paste in my mouth, and I felt cheated.

Then Kaneki pulled me into an embrace, and I realized we were no longer at Anteiku, but instead stood in field of flowers that bore what appeared to be a web of blood vessels upon their white petals. "Hide." His voice was clear again, and his scent so strong that it became as tangible as his hold.

But he was different now. "You going out for Santa Claus? You're halfway there with the white hair, but you're missing the beard."

Kaneki buried his face into my neck and mouthed the words "I've missed you" against my skin.

"You think I haven't missed you?" I trailed my fingers through his hair; it felt oddly cottony. "You made me watch the New Years' fireworks alone, jerk." He nuzzled closer, and I felt his lips pucker against me a few times. "Rabbits die of loneliness. Did you know that?"

"Sorry, Hide."

Then, a small body burrowed in between us, seeking comfort in the closeness, and I realized it was Touka who wrapped her trembling arms around Kaneki. "See, you've made Touka cry."

"Sorry."

"Stop apologizing."

"Just come back home already." Hide awoke to his own whisper and dew-kissed eyes. He clutched his pillow in a firm but tender way, and he had the uneasy suspicion that he had been a rabbit's tail away from a dream make-out session with it. He quickly released his hold and sat up and wiped his eyes.

A melancholy ecstasy – a feeling that Hide could only describe as being able to be with a deceased loved one for a little while again – consumed him, and he swore he would have gone mad if he hadn't grabbed his phone and dialed Yoriko.

Maybe I am already crazy, he thought as he glanced at his alarm clock. Who on Earth would answer their phone at 4:13 A.M.?

"Hide?" Apparently Yoriko would. "You're awake?" Strangely enough, she didn't sound like he'd woken her up.

"Um… yeah. H-How are you?" I must be nuts. He called a girl he just met before the Sun even woke up to take a leak.

"How'd that triple B work? Great! Right? I tried to do the same thing with Touka, but she was too tired."

Hide laughed breathily. "It… Yeah, it was great." Hide stood and made his way over to his desk. "You try the Blondy's? Is it good?"

"It's great! Just add a little condensed milk and it's outta this world! I've been up all night! Right now, I'm trying to prove that all the eigenvalues are real if a real square matrix is symmetric. Did you know that a real square matrix, let's call it M, is symmetric if it–"

"Hold on! I just woke up. I can't process that kinda stuff right now."

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you later."

"Later?" Hide used his shoulder to cradle his phone against his ear as he unrolled the missing poster once more.

"Yes, later! You're meeting me and Touka at Anteiku around eleven."

"Will you even be awake then?"

"Sure, sure! Can you meet us? I know Touka wouldn't mind. She likes you. She said you're a real dedicated friend to Kaneki."

Hide huffed through his nose, and smiled down at his friend's image. Maybe, if it could ever be possible again, he could try giving Kaneki that triple B and see if it sweetens his outlook a little.

"Sure, I can make it."

©Kitty Seeboo